How many touches do your club A-League midfielders take on the ball?

Ten years ago research shows that midfielders in Europe had 6-8 touches every time they got the ball.

Five years ago it was down to 3-5.

Now studying the Quarter Finals of last years Champions League it was down to an average of 1.8 touches per midfielder.

Who says?

Coach from Dinamo Zagrab one of the top ten Youth Development Production Factories in Europe. Check the video here.

Check out your club on the weekend. Sydney FC fan? Oh you can't guess Stuey Musialik's average was a little higher - you know I think it might have been!

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Australians undervalued, by Australians?

The three Roar players, Tommy Oar, Adam Sarota and Michael Zullo left for Utrecht last week.

All players will receive the Dutch minimum wage for overseas players with Zullo and Oar, given their representative football, getting possibly getting more.

The minimum wage in Holland is Euro 200,000 which transfers to a cool $300,000 just now.

Adam Sarota, 21, hardly played for the Roar yet when he did he looked like he might improve, if he played a lot more. By 21 he hadn't had many games in Australia and yet Utrecht saw something, enough to offer him $300,000 rumoured to be just $100,000 less than Archie Thompson is on!

So are we undervaluing our players, in monetary terms, yes of course, but more importantly in playing terms.

A three year deal in Holland should, providing they don't let it go to their heads, and lets face it after being on $50,000+ at the Roar who wouldn't let it go to their heads, provide for an increased payday next time. No wonder they don't care if they don't play..too much.

Nice work lads, but given the transfer fee, the three players involved, the A-League clubs should be playing the young lads even more. By 21, we could have many more Adam Sarota's running around and loads of dosh being transferred to the league.

Time to play the young guns, and more of them, more often!

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Nearpost Local - 29/12/09

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The closing program is given to a lengthy "fireside chat" with John Mitchell, Coach and technical director of the ANU Premier League club, the U20 Elite program, which broke new ground in the Capital Football Premier League in the 2009 season. For the first time we saw a Premier League club take a whole of year approach to football and players, much like the AIS. John and ANU lifted the bar considerably and good thing they did if we are to see a significant improvement in the standard of Premier League football in 2010 and beyond. In fairness, Capital Football gave them the thumbs up to proceed. The ANU program is aimed at giving talented players under the age of 20 years, who have missed ACTAS and AIS, a chance to pursue serious football. So should every other Premier League club and the question remains as we close the year - what will Capital Football do to address this "tragic vacant space" (to quote John in an earlier interview) in our football development process? Perhaps this is the way? The new HP program has left it a vacant space (excluding the Summer 20s comp - club based anyway) and it looks like staying that way. For all the other PL clubs - if you want to keep your best - do as well or better than the ANU program. Who could argue with that?
In this discussion, much of which has not been broadcast before, John ranges across several football topics pertinent to the ACT and region. Its very interesting and he leaves you in no doubt about how he sees things. We need more of this.

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